Tracy

Castleberry

Coaching Journal

1st meeting: September 12, 2014

My purpose for this meeting with Ms. R is to interview her for the individual teacher
assessment, find out what her technology skills and interests are and to find out
what types of things she is interested in trying in her classroom. As discussed in the
individual teacher technology assessment, Ms. R does not have a class set of
computers in her room, so I need to keep in mind that she will need to schedule
computer lab time when she wants to do something in her classroom that requires
her students to use a computer.

During the interview, I learned a lot about Ms. R and her level of comfort with
technology. I found that she is reluctant to go too far and is apprehensive about
her lack of skills and a little afraid of failure. She told me very frankly that she
knows that she needs to change some things in her classroom and realizes that her
students are very different from the ones she taught 15 years ago. According to Jim
Knight, this is the contemplation phase. During the contemplation stage, people
begin to consider why they might need to change (2007, p. 85). This is very
encouraging; Ms. R sees that there is a need for her to change things up in her
classroom to keep her students engaged.

My strategy is to start small and start with something that she is very interested in
trying in her classroom and making sure that I assure her often that you dont have
to be a technology wiz to integrate these strategies in her classroom. She quickly
mentioned that she had started to learn about Socrative in one of her technology
classes, and said that she really wanted to use that in her classroom. So, we fired up
Socrative and gave it a try.

I noticed while working with Ms. R with Socrative that she has great instincts
working with the computer. She understands her way around the interface, with
almost no help from me. I mentioned to her that she shouldnt worry so much about
her lack of experience, because she is able to play around with things and figure
them out, which is a great skill when it comes to integrating technology in the
classroom. As we worked, I began to realize that Ms. R is very aware of the benefits
of technology and how it can enrich the classroom experience for her and her
students.

Ms. R wants to finish the quiz she is developing over September break and try it in
the classroom when we return to school. She seems very interested in coaching
experience, especially after we talked about how Im going to help her with things
that can actively work in her classroom. We decided to do the Socrative activity on
the same day, so we can discuss how it worked in each others classes and even drop
in during our planning to see it in action.

I think this first session went very well. After developing our Socrative activity, we
will reconvene to discuss how it went and what we might need to change.


2nd meeting: September 26, 2014

Ms. R and I debriefed about Socrative for todays session. When we did the activity
in our classes towards the beginning of the week, she watched my first period
Honors Biology class and I watched her third period Biology class do the same
activity. The classes reacted to the activity very differently, but I dont know if that
was because of the difference in level, or something else. My class had downloaded
the app early, because I had reminded them to do so two days before hand. Ms. R
said that she did too, but many of her students had not downloaded the app. That
cost a lot of time (and some complaining). One student said that he did not want to
use his data to download the app, and the school Wi-Fi was too slow. Another said

that her parents didnt allow her to download apps without prior approval. Several
others just sat there and didnt try to download the app. Ms. R was frustrated, I
could see her turning red, and then finally we got things going because on Socrative
you can finish and then share your device with someone else. So half the class
started on the other activity she had planned, and then half started with Socrative.

It worked, but it was quite frustrating for both Ms. R and myself. Overall, once they
got going, the students did enjoy taking the quiz on evolution on Socrative. Once we
debriefed today, Ms. R expressed her frustration in the activity and said that she
struggles with getting her students engaged, even when technology is being used.
She said that student behavior is an issue as well, that sometimes the students are
surly and difficult, and unwilling to use their device in class. This, to be completely
honest, mystifies me. I have never experienced a situation where my students didnt
want to use their phones in class. I dont know what the issue is here, maybe a lack
of rapport between Ms. R and her class? Im not sure if shes talking about just one
class or all of them, and when I asked her about it, she became kind of upset, so I
decided to change the subject.

We need a new tool. The downloading of the app issues just threw everything off,
and there was almost no recovering from it. The class was 2.5 seconds away from
chaos, and Ms. R almost lost her steam. I need something to gently nudge Ms. R into
the preparation phase, as outlined by Jim Knight. Once people decide that they
really want to change, they must make plans for whatever change they are planning
(2010, p. 86). I dont think shes going to get there without something to show her
that change can be a good thing. Im frustrated because I modeled the lesson first,
and it still didnt go well. I was so sure that it would be a dream because it went so
well in my class. This teaches me that a strategy that works in my class wont
necessarily work in others, and not even all of mine. Well, back to the tool. It needs
to be engaging and it needs to be more seamless. Maybe something that doesnt
require the download of an app would be better. I wanted to go on to Google Docs,
but we are just not there yet. I cant even imagine trying to implement that in Ms.

Rs classes right now. That leads into my other strategy, start small. Google Docs
would be too much of a leap at this point. Slow and steady wins the race.

Ms. R seemed very frustrated this week and didnt seem to be making any strides
towards change. Hopefully, my strategy will get her excited about the new
strategies she can try in her classroom, and she will start having more confidence in
herself. I think this is one of the main issues with Ms. R, a sheer lack of confidence
she is allowing her students to become the Sourpuss that Jim Knight wrote about.
Sourpuss was really obnoxious, and initially he totally rejected our teaching
practices (2010, p. 89). This shows me two things: Sourpusses can be teachers
(Ms. R not included) but they can also be students and confidence in a teacher is
needed to stand in front of the class and teach them a different way.

I feel at this point, I need to make an addendum to my initial strategy. I need to help
Ms. R find her confidence. I think that I can kill two birds with one stone here. If I
can find another tool to help her students get engaged and on board to the new
strategies, then Ms. R will be able to celebrate some success and her confidence will
build because of it. In fact, after the session, I did some research, and I have decided
to get Ms. R enrolled in Kahoot. Its different than Socrative and hopefully way more
fun. I will do this at the beginning of the week and see if Kahoot can help Ms. R get
her confidence back!


3rd Meeting: October 3, 2014

Well, we tried Kahoot, and it went much better than Socrative! Yay! Over the
weekend, I made a Kahoot for Classification, Bacteria and Viruses. At the beginning
of the week, I went down and helped Ms. R get registered in Kahoot and then I
shared my quiz with her. The great thing about Kahoot is that you dont have to
download an app. All the students have to do is open their web browser on their
phone and go to kahoot.it.


It loads right up, once the teacher starts the quiz on the SMART board, the students
enter a game pin to access the activity. They enter their name (which they had a lot
of fun with, because they can use pseudonyms) and then theyre on. Ms. R and I
used the same strategy as before, she watched my 1st period and I watched her 3rd.
My students were actually a lot more animated than before (theyre all pretty sleepy
1st period) and hers were not grumbling and griping! They got a little excited, but
the game is quite fun and the answer choices are shapes and colors, which
correspond with the answer on the SMART board. Kahoot has cool music
throughout the activity, and the only thing the teacher has to do to move the game
forward is press the next button.

This time, Ms. R was enjoying herself. She was smiling as the students got excited
when they got an answer right, trying hard to surpass the scores of their classmates
and generally learning while having a load of fun. In fact, from what I could tell, they
had completely forgotten that they were learning something. It was great!

During our debriefing this week, Ms. R and I had a great deal of very important
dialogue. Done well, a dialogue is a profound act of mutual learning during which
two people suspend their personal opinions for the broader purpose of finding
something closer to truth than they had before their conversation (Knight, 2010, p.
126). I truly believe that is what happened this week when we talked about how the
lesson with Kahoot went overall. We talked about the preparation for Kahoot, the
implementation of the tool and how much the students enjoyed it. We went on to
discuss that sometimes a tool is just not the right one, and Ms. R and I agreed that
you shouldnt give up, just keep looking until you find something that you like
better.

This is the second week that we have employed the model lesson strategy. Ms. R
watches me teach the lesson, and then I watch her teach the same lesson. Jim King
discusses this strategy and the importance of keeping it informal. The IC might want

to avoid using the word observation and merely say that they will visit instead
(2010, p. 121). Its important that the Ms. R feels that Im there to help her, not
judge her. Because we have been friends for a long time, this is actually quite easy
to accomplish.

I am very encouraged by the change I saw in Ms. R this week. The Kahoot lesson
went so well that she was very confident with the experience and happy that we
found that tool. She didnt get upset the entire session, which I am very pleased
about, and she sees that the tools that are available arent perfect, but some can be
used with great success, and Im very glad that we saw that this week with Kahoot.
All we needed to get back on track was something that gave some positive results, to
get Ms. R back engaged. When I asked Ms. R what she thought shed like to do for
next week, she suggested Google Docs, which I was very happy about! She had
learned a little about them in a professional learning class and said that she would
love to give them a go in her classroom. Im excited about next week!


4th meeting: October 10, 2014


Earlier in the week, I visited Ms. R and asked her to get a Gmail address so we could
tackle Google Presentations this week. I asked her what she thought about involving
her students in the development of the activity, and she said that she would be glad
to give it a try. My thought is if we can involve her students and they feel like they
have a stake in the activity, then they might approach the whole experience with a
better attitude. According to Jim Knight, ICs can also help teachers significantly
increase the impact of formative assessments by guiding teachers to ensure that
students are deeply involved in the assessment process (Knight, 2007, p. 175). By
asking students to help choose how they are assessed, and to help assess the
activities used in the class, they feel more involved and have a more tangible stake
in their classroom experience and their own learning.



The topic is dichotomous keys. I will model the lesson for Ms. R with my 1st period,
and then I will observe her teach the same lesson 3rd period. We will use Google
Presentations for the students to collaborate with each other to develop their key.
Ms. R will her lesson in my room so her students can use my class set of laptops.
When modeling the lesson, I started by creating the Google presentations and
putting a link on my website. I also sent the link to Ms. R so she could put the link on
her website as well. When I introduced the lesson to my class, I showed them a
dichotomous key and explained that they would be creating their own, but it was up
to them what we would be classifying together.

My students, as did Ms. Rs came up with a solution very quickly. I gave them a hint
that we shouldnt use physical characteristics because they would be a little harder
to classify, and we should choose something that we had a good amount of and that
varied. My class took about 15 seconds to come up with the idea of shoes, and her
class did the same in about 25 seconds.

We had them write their key per partnership out on paper first, and then had them
load up the Google Presentation and get started typing in their key. Both classes got
excited, tackled the activity with enthusiasm and then, as an added bonus, her class
actually had the idea to name the person by the shoe using binomial nomenclature.
My honors kids didnt even come up with that on their own. I was very impressed.

The use of the Google Presentation was a little touch and go. Google tends to jam
when too many people are on it at once, so it took a little getting used to and a lot of
patience. The students were getting annoyed, but Ms. R stayed calm, told them to
relax, and had two computers with better processors ready just in case Google just
froze completely, which did happen a few times.

Overall, it worked. I was pleased with the students engagement, and their peer
review when we asked them to walk through three of their classmates keys.
Many of them offered very professional critiques and were overall very kind with
their comments.

In our debriefing, Ms. R seemed to be very positive about the overall outcome. She
did express concern about the technical difficulties, and also that her students were
behaving differently because I was in there while they were going through the
activity. I addressed her concerns about technical issues by letting her know that a
technology problem shouldnt be the end of the world, and if she stayed calm then
the majority of her students would as well. Having the two computers at the front of
the class helps to allay fears, and if the students understand that the teacher will be
flexible and fair, then problems can be dealt with calmly as they occur. For the most
part, the students seemed actively involved and had good attitudes for most of the
activity.

As for whether or not her students would respond to things differently if I were not
in the classroom, theres no way to really tell without us suspending the You watch
me, I watch you model and having her teach the next lesson alone. That will be our
goal for next week.
Ms. R thanked me for helping her set the lessons up and said that she was overall
very pleased with the outcome and is interested in receiving more coaching help in
the future. She is still a bit concerned that she wont be able to come up with the
ideas on her own, but I explained that coming up with the ideas is sometimes just a
matter of putting your ear to the ground and trying things that other teachers
suggest. She is also very good about going to professional development sessions,
because she is very open to trying new things in her classroom.

At the beginning of the semester, I was concerned about my own coaching abilities,
to be sure. I am one of the people who always go help people when they have
computer or software issues, during pre-planning I am always running around

hooking up peoples printers, SMART boards and changing their display settings, but
that is completely different from coaching. Coaching is about relationships and
communication first, helping people with their technology is somewhere down the
list. Coaching is about supporting change. I have enjoyed working with Ms. R, but I
have known her for years. Going and talking to a bunch of different people makes
me a bit nervous, and I am not sure if I want to leave the classroom right away, even
after my degree.

5th meeting: October 24, 2014

Ms. R and I met this last time to discuss everything that has happened so far in our
coaching experience (I say our because I learned just as much as she did, probably
more) and to discuss more uses for Google Drive in the classroom. We started our
meeting on a very upbeat note; Ms. R seems very excited about most everything we
have done so far (except for maybe our first kind of disastrous tool).

We talked about Google Drive first. I made sure to stay detached here because I
happen to think that Google Drive is wonderful, but I was very careful not to go on
and on about my personal feelings, I want Ms. R to find something about Google
Drive that she wants to try in the classroom, not just trying it because Im a fan.

I suggested that she might just start by playing around and making a few of the
different types of documents available on Google Drive and see how she likes the
way that they work. Forms are always fun, and she said that she would try that one
first. I also told Ms. R that she can upload PowerPoints and Word documents in
Google Drive and these can be shared with anyone, Gmail not required. By sharing a
link on her website, Ms. R can make any document created on Google Drive available
for her students to use.

We also talked about how Google Drive can be used to collaborate with colleagues.
Teachers can make collaborative assessments and can modify presentations and

documents to suit their needs. The sky really is the limit, and I told Ms. R that the
important thing is to find something she wants to try and go for itno
implementation is too smallthey can always be built on.

Ms. R expressed a concern that she wont be able to think of anything to do with
Google Driveshe still struggles with the confidence of just reaching out and seeing
if something works. Her students can be a handful, and I know that she is afraid of
failure. This is common, because a lot of teachers are afraid to implement change
until they are sure that it will work, failure is embarrassing and makes people (not
just teachers) feel inadequate. Teachers probably do struggle more with the idea of
failure than people thinkstanding up in front of all those young people is not for
the faint-hearted.

I made the suggestion to Ms. R that she try something new in every unit, even if its
only one thing. That way, by the end of the school year, she has quite an arsenal of
tricks and new things that can be molded and developed further.

Ms. R seems more open to change than she did at the beginning of the experience,
not that she was against change, just that she was very hesitant. Ms. R is
apprehensive of failure, and I think this stems from her students (in that one class)
being so hard to please. She is a very caring person, and she worries when someone
doesnt like the activity. She wants her students to learn something and have fun
while doing it. Ms. R indicated that she will ask me for help from time to time and if
theres ever anything specific that she wants help on that I will be glad to help her. I
hope that she continues to strive for changes in her classroom.

Coaching is a lot different than I thought it would be. I have read and studied about
strategies, where to start and how to choose what to cover, as well as how to go
about coaching. I also learned how to communicate with teachers. I tried to
remember what Jim Knight described, We need to listen better. We know it, and
yet we dont do it (Knight, 2007, p. 61). I tried very hard while coaching Ms. R to

listen to all her concerns and authentically respond to them. I value this experience,
learning how to coach, and consider myself lucky to have been able to coach Ms. R.

A sad end note: after the end of our coaching sessions, something happened that I
am afraid has derailed all of mine and Ms. Rs efforts to promote change by
integrating technology in her classroom. A couple of her students in the same class
that I was observing, used their phones to take pictures of Ms. R and post them to
Twitter. They proceeded to say horrible things about Ms. R and she is completely
heartbroken. She now says that she has no interest in using technology in her
classroom because of what happened on Twitter. I assured Ms. R that what
happened was not her fault, but she is crestfallen, and it seems she has lost all of the
confidence that she had gained as a result of our coaching sessions.

References

Knight, J. (2007). Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving

Instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Socrative: http://www.socrative.com

Kahoot: https://getkahoot.com

Google Drive: http://www.google.com